Waste incinerator companies named

Two companies shortlisted to build a waste incinerator in Oxfordshire have been named by council chiefs.

The county council said the incinerator would help it to conform with a law coming into effect in 2010 to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

Viridor Waste Management proposes to a site at Ardley in Bicester, while the Waste Recycling Group chose Abingdon's Sutton Courtenay as its location.

Both firms say they would use the same disposal process.

The technological process is called Energy from Waste (EfW), where household waste would be incinerated at very high temperatures and under controlled conditions to produce heat.

Those professing concern about climate change should act on their principles and reject polluting incinerators Andrew Wood Oxford Friends of the Earth

The heat is then used to produce electricity but can also be used to produce steam or hot water for industrial or domestic use.

A council spokesman said: "the production of electricity by burning waste offsets the use of fossil fuels".

But Andrew Wood, waste and recycling campaigner for Oxford Friends of the Earth, said: "The county council's decision flies in the face of public opposition and sound environmental policy.

"Other councils have chosen waste treatment technologies which don't involve incineration, and which complement strategies for higher rates of recycling and waste prevention - saving cash and the environment.

"Those professing concern about climate change should act on their principles and reject polluting incinerators."

Earlier, the local authority said it was also aiming to increase the amount of waste it recycled - from the current 40% to 55% in the long term.

It added that the best countries in Europe currently recycled between 50% and 60%.

Councillor Roger Belson, the county council's cabinet member for sustainable development, said: "We are sure that nearby local communities will want to have a say and they will be able to do just that when a planning process begins."

Both companies will be asked to submit more detailed proposals and their planning applications will be subject to full consultation with local people and statutory organisations, the local authority said.

The council's final decision be announced early in 2009.